MURDERED: Amber Tuccaro // Henry McCabe

[00:00] Hi, Crime Junkies. It's Britt, and I have big news. One of my favorite seasonal shows, CounterClock, is back with a brand new season, and it is wild. Host Delia D'Ambra is digging into the 2008 Lane Bryant murders. I mean, this isn't just a recap. It is a reinvestigation. She's talking to law enforcement, people from the community, even sources who have never spoken publicly until now. And you know I love a show that asks all the questions. Listen to CounterClock Season 8 now wherever you get your podcasts. [00:30] Hi, Crime Junkies, and hi, Britt. Hi. Before we jump into the episode, I have to brag on you a little bit and tell all of our listeners how amazing you have been lately, because if people got our newsletter, then we released last week that you actually just adopted a newborn baby girl who's the cutest thing in the world, right? Yes, she's perfect. Her name is May. But I have to say, like, a lot of other podcasters have either, like, when they have a newborn [01:00] go change their podcast to every other week, which is totally acceptable. Having a baby turns your world upside down. It has rocked you, right? You have no idea. Yeah, it has rocked you. But I will say, not only did we not change our recording schedule, but you edited and released a bonus episode while you had a newborn baby get dropped into your lap. Yep, we had had her for five days, four days when the Golden State Killer arrest was announced. And you called me and we

[01:30] You've just been crushing it. I totally appreciate you. So if all of our listeners appreciate the fact that you are literally killing yourself to be an awesome mom and also release an awesome podcast, make sure you go on iTunes. Leave us a five-star rating and a written review. And make sure to tell your friends about the show. [02:00] Thank you. [02:18] Today, I'm going to do something a little bit different. I feel like it is really important not only to cover a wide array of cases, but also an array of different types of victims, like men, women, different races, different ages. A lot of what podcasts and even the majority of our episodes are about young white women. And it sucks because I want to tell these other stories, [02:48] I can't make an hour long episode if I have like two news articles. [02:53] So basically, if the world didn't care enough to report on it, I don't have enough to tell you a half-hour story on it. But that's just not fair. Everyone deserves to have their story told, no matter who they are or what walk of life they came from. So today, I'm going to tell you two stories of cases that I think are terrifying and we should all be caring about now.

[03:15] but yet no one is talking about. Yeah, and as two white women, I'm really excited to be able to use the platform that we have to tell these stories that haven't gotten the press that they really, really should deserve. [03:28] So the first story I want to tell you is about Amber Tocaro. [03:33] She was a 21-year-old Indigenous woman who lived in Alberta, Canada. And I will be totally honest here. We're from Middle America, and I really had no idea about the plights of the Indigenous people in Canada and how they've been unfairly treated by legal and governmental systems for, like, ever. Until I heard Connie Walker's podcast from the CBC. And when you guys are done here, go check out her show called Missing and Murdered. I am all about the work that she's doing. [04:03] highlights these stories of indigenous people whose cases have been so poorly handled, I finally understood why a story that I had heard long ago had gotten little to no attention by the press. [04:17] So on August 17th of 2010, Amber flew from McMurray, Canada to Edmonton with her 14-month-old son and a female friend. She told her mom that she just wanted to get away for the weekend. And when they arrived, they stayed in a hotel just outside the city of Edmonton in a little town called Nisku. Amber was usually in regular communication with her mother, but the communication had stopped by the second night into Amber's trip.

[04:47] And this immediately worried her mom. [04:50] And when her mom starts trying to reach out to her and her friend, what we learn is that Amber had left her son with her friend in the motel because she wanted to go into the city. [05:03] Again, this has not been reported on heavily. I have no idea why she wanted to go into the city. I have no idea why her friend didn't go with her, why she left her son. Was she going for something specific? Why? [05:16] I don't know, this is a big question mark. But her mother immediately filed a missing person report. But... Wait. [05:23] I feel like I know what you're gonna say next. [05:26] The cops didn't take it seriously. No, that is not what I was going to say. I was going to say the Royal Mounted Police didn't take it seriously. Okay. Because this is Canada. They said that she was probably just off partying. She'll come home. She's going to call you eventually. And her mother actually had to push to get them to actually file the report. They even went so far as to make a statement on September 4th of 2010, [05:56] appearance saying, [05:57] quote, we don't have any reason to believe she's in any danger. We know that she is in the Edmonton area. And then the RCMP didn't put much effort into finding her until two years after her disappearance, when they released a new piece of evidence. And a couple of months before they release this, they all of a sudden tell Amber's family that they now believe Amber had been murdered.

[06:27] of evidence when they did and not sooner. I assume based on what it is that they had it all along, although no one explicitly says this, and maybe they just got it when they told the family she was murdered. So in 2012, [06:42] The RCMP released a portion of a phone call that Amber made while in the car with her abductor. What? Yeah, and I'm going to play it next, but I want to warn everyone listening. We usually don't swear on the show, but... [06:58] The audio has some curse words in it that we are not going to believe. We want to give it the whole audio clip to you. So just be prepared that that's what you're going to hear. [07:28] anywhere I don't want to go. I want to go into the city. [07:34] Yo, we're not going in the city, are we? No, we're not. Then where the fuck are these roads going to? 50th Street. 50th Street. Are you sure? [07:46] Absolutely. [07:47] Yo, where are we going? 50th Street. 50th Street. 50th Street. 50th Street. 50th Street. 50th Street.

[07:58] You just throw this down, right? [08:04] *phone rings* What did I just hear? [08:08] I have full body chills, you guys. Actual full body chills. The audio they release is just 61 seconds away. [08:17] of a 17 minute [08:20] phone call. [08:21] What? [08:22] What's on the rest of the call? We don't know. The RCMP have never released that. Okay, I'm getting Killer on the High Bridge vibes again. Yeah, but I feel like at least this time, the public had way more to go off of. Like, you can really get a feel for this guy's voice, his tone, his speech pattern, all the stuff that I think it would really take to recognize somebody. So in the call, I'm going to get a feel for this guy's voice. [08:48] The man insists he's driving north to 50th Street. And Amber is repeating what he's saying to the person that she's on the phone with. And then the call just kind of ends abruptly. 50th Street. 50th Street. Are you sure? Absolutely. Absolutely. [09:04] Yo, where are we going? 50th Street. [09:12] East Street? East Street. That's over town. Probably. [09:23] The RCMP investigators believe that instead of driving Amber north into the city, the man was actually driving her southeast along a rural road of Leduc County. And if that's true...

[09:38] That's where he messes up even when he's talking to her. He slips up. Where are we by? We're just heading south of Beaumont. Or north of Beaumont. We're heading north of Beaumont. But how did police know he went south and it wasn't just a slip up? [09:54] Well, because on September 1st of 2012, just four days after the audio is released, horseback riders found Amber's partial skeletal remains in a farmer's field in Leduc, which was south of her motel. And part of the creepy part that I've heard is, is like the drive from her motel to where she was found was about 17 minutes. So like almost the whole time that she was on that phone call. [10:24] person. The discovery of Amber's remains so soon after the audio was released is, quote, entirely coincidental. That is the craziest coincidence I have ever heard of. Oh, I know. I can't get over that. Did the RCMP release How She Died? I can't find anything that talks about cause of death or even an autopsy on her. So if RCMP was able to determine that from her remains, [10:54] call that she did get into a car with a man and her mom had actually always warned against her hitchhiking and had even been wary of her being in a car alone with a stranger, like even a cab driver. She used to tell Amber that if you're ever...

[11:09] You know, in a car alone with a stranger, you should pretend that you're on your phone so that if someone had the idea to do something bad to you, they would maybe think twice about it because you have this kind of lifeline on the other end. And this time she wasn't even pretending. She actually was on a call and he still did this. Bigger question. How did the police get that 17-minute call? Okay, officials wouldn't say. [11:39] was incarcerated. And when he called her, all of those calls are recorded. And that is how the RCMP got the call. So it's almost complete coincidence? Yeah. Do you think the guy knew she was on the call or was she keeping it a secret? You know, that's what I don't know. I would assume that he knew she was on the call because if you listen to the audio again, she like repeats herself. Like he says where she's going and then she is like saying it into the phone. So... [12:05] I think it's pretty obvious that she was talking to somebody. [12:09] But also, again, crazy to me that he knows she's talking to somebody. He's openly speaking so this person can hear his voice. We all end up hearing his voice. [12:29] N [12:30] he's willing to be recognized, but he probably didn't know that the person she was on the phone with was being, like the call was being recorded. So I guess maybe one person hearing his voice wasn't concerning to him. I don't know. I just think it's crazy that he would take that risk. It's pretty bold. But there are so many questions I have about this case in general that just aren't answered. Like again, why was Amber even traveling in the first place? Everything says she was just taking a weekend trip, but why that motel? Why Niskew?

[12:58] Why did she want to ride into this city? Why didn't her friend go with her? I mean, I just think all of these are relevant questions, but they're questions that people in the media aren't asking, questions that people in the public aren't really asking and we're not getting answers to. [13:13] And I don't know how many answers we could even get if we wanted to. The family had actually filed a complaint with the RCMP's Civil Review and Complaints Commission that basically alleged that the LeDuc RCMP mishandled Amber's disappearance so badly that it hindered her subsequent homicide investigation. Because one of the things that they pointed to in this complaint was that when they removed her name from the list of missing persons, [13:43] of her belongings that she had left in that motel with her friend and her baby. And that's something that according to their policy should have never happened, but it did. I feel like knowing the answers to those questions you talked about, why she was there at all, why she was going into town, all of that would help us understand what happened. And was it just me or did she sound a little bit intoxicated? Maybe, but that is part of the problem. I don't even have a baseline for Amber [14:13] I don't know exactly where she got picked up even. Was it right in front of the motel? Was it on the side of the road? Were there any witnesses? Like compare this to other cases. Like for example, here in the US, when a young white girl is missing or murdered, like take Maura Murray for example. People have picked apart everything.

[14:31] Every detail of that case. Every detail of her past. What she was doing the day she went missing. Her friends. Her friends' past. Her family's past. What her relationship with her boyfriend was like. Like they even tell everyone the salacious details of her sex life. We know everything. There's been documentaries. There's been full TV series. Books. Like constant attention. And people have like forced the hand of media and news outlets to care. [15:01] who's indigenous, who went missing, and we know nothing, and no one is following up. I have to ask, did anything come from them releasing that tape? Like I said, I feel like if someone knew the guy, there's enough to recognize that voice. [15:14] One woman contacted CBC News to say that she's convinced she recognizes the man's voice. She actually said, quote, [15:24] I know that voice. I've ridden with that voice before on several occasions. There's no doubt in my mind that it's his voice. And she named like a specific man and she says she reported his name to the RCMP back in 2012 when the audio was released. And when CBC was like doing their investigation, they found two other women who say they reported the exact same man to police, suspecting that it was his voice on the recording. Were these women related in any way? [15:54] even find out who these women are so I have no idea if they're connected in any way or where they would have met this man or had the opportunity to be in his car like there is nothing that tells me definitively so I'm not gonna guess how they might know him or each other.

[16:10] As of 2015, CBC's Aboriginal unit has found at least 15 unsolved cases of Indigenous women who have vanished or who were murdered in and around the Edmonton area. Three of which were found within just a few kilometers of where Amber was found. So they could have had a serial killer on their hands in Edmonton? [16:40] case here in the U.S. The guy in Edmonton is preying on people that he knows law enforcement won't care enough about to do a proper investigation on and people he knows the public won't care enough about to push law enforcement to do a proper investigation on them. So before we move on to our next case, because this is it, this is all we have, we don't have any more, no one is pushing anyone to do any stories on this, I want to play this guy's voice one more time and I'm going to take [17:10] his back-to-back so you can hear him, hear all of his tone, hear him say a bunch of different stuff and see if you recognize his voice. We're just south of Beaumont, north of Beaumont. We're going to 50th Street. [17:26] Absolutely 50th Street. 50th Street. Please. [17:32] We're just south of Beaumont or north of Beaumont. Yes, it's 50th Street. Absolutely 50th Street. 50th Street. Please. If that sounds familiar to you, you can call the CARE team at [redacted phone].

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[19:28] So this story takes place in 2015. At the center of the story is a man named Henry McCabe, who was actually from Liberia. He had lived in California for a time, but in 2015, he resided in Minnesota. He has a wife and two daughters, and he works as an auditor for the Minnesota Department of Revenue. [19:48] On the night we're going to talk about, September 6, 2015, Henry's wife and girls were away in California, and he went to a nightclub with two of his friends, William and Calvin. And I use the term friends loosely. From what I could decipher online, it seems like he was pretty good friends with Calvin, but maybe not so close with William. Like they were just kind of more acquaintances. But they all left the club around 2 a.m. on September 7th. [20:14] William says that Henry asked to be dropped off at this gas station that was actually a couple of miles in the opposite direction of his home. And William agreed to it. He dropped him off there. [20:26] The next thing that we know [20:27] is at 228. [20:29] AM, Henry calls his wife. And when she picks up the phone, Henry was screaming into the phone, saying that he had been shot, like writhing in pain and like moaning. And his wife tries to call Henry's brother while Henry is on the line. Wait. Wait. [20:46] Why isn't she calling the police? I have no idea. One article, just one, said that first he had dialed his wife and she picked up and then he had dialed his brother and gotten his voicemail, which makes sense. But every other article, everything I read online besides that one, says that he called his wife. And then, like, while he's on the line, she, like, dials in his brother's phone but can't get a hold of his brother. And she actually gets his voicemail.

[21:16] Wow! [21:17] I guess through three-way calling, his voicemail picks up what's going on on Henry's line of the phone and leaves a two-minute voicemail, and it is terrible. [21:27] One of the strangest pieces of audio I have ever heard. And now I'm going to play you a news clip. The police have never released the full two minutes of this audio. There's really only this one clip from a news station that we have to work with. No, really? The police didn't release the whole audio? I know. It's a story we've been hearing a lot. So listen to this. It's a voicemail unlike anything you've ever heard before. [21:57] Two minutes worth of noises, bizarre ones. [22:03] But very little actual talking. Authorities confirmed the disturbing middle of the night call came from Henry McCabe's cell phone. [22:12] The tortured grunts suddenly stopped. [22:16] There is silence. Then someone, either Henry or another person, says, stop it. What the f***? I know we don't cuss on this show, but what the actual f***? I know. I'm going to have nightmares. I know. [22:31] Oh my god. [22:33] I know. [22:35] I don't even know what I was hearing. I don't know either. It's definitely... [22:40] "him moaning, [22:42] Right. And then per reports, someone says, stop it. But we don't know who that is. That part of the audio has never been released. So we don't know if it's Henry. We don't know if it's someone else. But like what gave me the full body chills, as you always say, is at the very beginning, there was I don't know. I don't even know if animal sound is the right word. It was like that kind of clicking noise.

[23:12] inhuman sound. It's guttural and terrifying. Yes. So police find that Henry's cell phone was disconnected shortly after that call. And when they get the records, they find that the call pinged off of a cell tower near Creekview Park in a town just four miles east of that gas station where his friend supposedly dropped him off. When police initially check out the [23:42] right away. There was no video footage of him being dropped off, but [23:48] It turned out that William had just gotten the location wrong. He was probably drinking that night too, so he very well could have just gotten confused. It could be very innocent because police found footage of him dropping Henry off at another gas station that was just two miles away from the one he initially said. I'm still not loving his friend's story. Oh, then you're not going to love this. So when they talked to William, William had Henry's keys in his possession, and Calvin, his other friend, had Henry's wallet. [24:18] he need both of those things like especially to get in his house yeah I don't know what the explanation for having his keys was but Calvin said that he had his wallet because Henry was so intoxicated that he took it at some point to prevent him from buying other drinks and what I don't know and I can't find is like how did they all get to the club did William take his keys so he wouldn't drive and then forget to give him back or I can't even think of another explanation of why he would have his keys especially when he would have needed to get into his home

[24:47] Was Calvin with them when William dropped Henry off? From what I can find, no. But Calvin does back up William's story that William kept asking Henry, like, before they left the club, as they're getting ready to go, he kept saying, like, give me directions to your house. Just tell me how to get there. I'm going to drop you off at home. And Henry kept insisting on being taken to some gas station that really wasn't near his home. [25:11] So for weeks, Henry is a missing person and [25:14] He is missing until November 2nd, when his body is discovered in Rush Lake, which was just a couple of miles from the gas station that he was actually dropped off at. I mean, that's not totally shocking. From that voicemail and the fact that he didn't show up, I would have expected something tragic. But at least the family can get some answers now, right? Yeah. [25:35] Oh no, more questions than answers. Because remember how his wife said that while he was on the phone, he was yelling about how he had been shot? Yeah. And you know how it sounded like he was just in like excruciating pain. The sounds that will haunt me. [25:49] Forever? Yes. Yes, those. Well, when his body is found. [25:54] There's no gunshot wound and no sign of injury or foul play. The coroner ruled that his cause of death was likely from drowning. But nothing else gets explained and there is no additional information. Like, do you think if some Georgia beauty queen left this voicemail and then was found in a lake, we'd all still be like, oh, that was weird. But the end, nope, not at all. Yeah, I have so many questions and I feel like no one else is asking them. Yeah.

[26:24] Yeah, I mean that's a huge one for me. And again, this is, we don't even have the news articles to go off of because from the little bit that I can pick up, it doesn't even seem like he was like immediately reported missing. He wasn't reported missing until like the next day, I don't think. And then people were noticing that he wasn't showing up for work. Again, why is his wife calling his brother? Like if she's getting a call that he says he shot and he's like screaming and you've got like predator noises in the background, I don't know. [26:52] I'm calling 911. [26:54] Right? Yeah. You were there when I thought my husband was missing, when he just wasn't home from work and I thought someone else's car was his. Yeah. I went from zero to 60 pretty fast. Right. And I don't even know who reported him missing. If it was his wife, if it was someone else... [27:11] They did mention in some of the news articles that they were going to run a toxicology report on him. But no one ever follows up. There's no press releases. There's no follow-up articles. So I have no idea what those results were. And this was back in 2015. We have the results back. They just haven't been shared. And I would think... [27:31] that if the results came back and he was on drugs or something crazy, you know, like he had maybe either he had taken drugs or he had been drugged, something that could explain such strange action, the police would have come out with something like that. Because there's been speculation by other groups of people to say, well, maybe he wanted to commit suicide. Maybe he just [27:52] walked into this lake and

[27:54] And that's it. And the only thing they really point to is that shortly before his death, he had bounced a check and gotten a bad review at work. So, again, if they had this toxicology, I feel like if there were drugs in his system, that would be something to release, to at least put people to ease. Like the four of us that have questions about this, like to put our minds at ease. But the fact that they haven't released it makes me think that it would give us more questions than answers. Does that make sense? Yeah, definitely. [28:24] have police aren't looking into it no one's forcing them to look into it no one's really looking into amber's case either they've just put out this audio and said hey if you if you know this guy let us know and that's it and there isn't like even enough information to like give these people a full decent podcast episode which is just so upsetting to me i would hope that [28:46] that as more people get interested and law enforcement in both of these cases feel a little bit more pressure from the public, then that's when we start getting more information. And I mean, we have to hold them accountable. I think that's at the end of the day what it comes down to. Definitely. So if you want to see more information, see the people we're talking about, if you want clips of the audio, you can find that on our website, crimejunkiepodcast.com. You can also follow us on Twitter at Crime Junkie Pod and on Instagram at Crime Junkie Podcast. [29:16] We'll be back next week with a new story.

[29:38] Crime Junkie is written and hosted by me. All of our sound production and editing comes from Britt Prewatt. [29:46] All of our music, including our theme, comes from Justin Daniel. Crime Junkie is an AudioChuck production. So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve? Do you approve? [29:54] *Mario* [29:59] Okay, crime junkies, you know I absolutely love a twist and a turn, especially when it comes to people who turn out to be someone they're not. That's why I have been obsessed with the podcast Chameleon. Every Thursday, host Josh Dean deep dives into a scam so bizarre, it will leave you wondering, how did they get away with that? It is truly one of my favorite podcasts right now, and I've been listening for years. [30:21] I think you'll love it too. [30:23] Listen to Chameleon wherever you get your podcasts.